Reincarnation
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: When Sam goes missing, a search for him by the Autobots bears no fruit. Missing, presumed dead, it is many years later that they discover what has happened to him.
1. Chapter 1

Reincarnation.

Summary: When Sam goes missing, a search for him by the Autobots bears no fruit. Missing, presumed dead, it is many years later that they discover what has happened to him.

Warning: Character 'death'.

Rating: M for safety

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro/Paramount, not me.

Continuity: Movieverse.

A/N: Thanks to DitzyMusicLover on this site for allowing me to write this bunny of hers. I had a similar (but far poorer) related bunny, but with the addition of her idea, it has vastly improved. Thanks also to MeowthTwo, also of this site, for the use of her OC medic, Headfixer.

Reincarnartion.

Prologue.

Sam and Bumblebee were out at the Lookout, which is where they went every Wednesday, and perhaps this regularity was their undoing, or maybe they were being followed, or perhaps they were just unlucky. Whichever it was, when the Autobot and the boy realised they had unfriendly company, they reacted in their usual way. Bumblebee activated his cannon, motioning the boy behind him, and the boy quickly obeyed.

Moving forwards to give himself a space advantage, Bumblebee faced down Barricade and Dropkick. As the two closed in on him, Bumblebee watched them warily, and then moved to defend as both of them attacked him at once.

The ferocity of their attack took him by surprise, the Decepticons were playing for keeps. They had to be after Sam, he reasoned, there was no other reason he could think of for their unexpected attack.

It didn't take Bumblebee long to realise that, outnumbered as he was, he had no chance of winning this battle, and he urgently commed the Base for help even as he began to succumb to the vicious attacks of the two Decepticons.

When Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet got to the Lookout, Bumblebee was severely damaged and barely alive, and there was no sign of Sam.

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Twenty minutes previously.

No matter how hard Sam had struggled, the two Decepticons wouldn't let him check on 'Bee and certainly weren't about to let him go. Dropkick roughly showed Sam into the back of Barricade's alt, and as Barricade closed the door and locked it, Dropkick folded into his own alt.

Although Sam tried to get out of Barricade all the way to the Decepticon Base, his efforts were futile. When Barricade let him out, he was in a small walled area and had no-where to run to, although Sam did try. Barricade picked him up in one hand and carried him, yelling and shouting, to Starscream's hangar, where he was dumped unceremoniously in front of Starscream.

"You have been a thorn in mine and the Decepticon's sides for a long time, fleshling," Starscream said. "I could imprison you, but that only gives you a chance to escape and the Autobots a chance to rescue you. No, I think we would be best rid of you." He looked up at Barricade.

"Kill him," he instructed.

Sam tried to run and hide, but Barricade quickly caught him, squeezing him hard enough to break bones, Sam's screams cut off as his ribs punctured his lungs. Then he threw him against the far wall, where he hit with a heavy thud. For good measure, Barricade picked him up, threw him on the tarmac outside, and trod on him, not heavily enough to burst him, but heavy enough to be sure he was dead.

Barricade stepped back from the shattered body of the boy, but a moment later, the boy was haloed by a blue-white light, which spread to blot him out. As the white swelled and expanded, Barricade retreated into Starscream's hangar, while Starscream himself began scanning, and called their medic, Headfixer, to confirm what his scans were reading.

Headfixer arrived as the glow began to fade. "Yes, it's AllSpark energy," he said. As the glow faded, the three could see the form of a mech left sprawled on the ground where Sam's body had been. The mech stirred, and clumsily sat up, looking confusedly at the three mechs surrounding him. There was no fear on his faceplates, only confusion and curiosity.

Headfixer ran a scanning beam over him, then moved over and connected a cable from his wrist.

"Yes, the memories indicate that this was the human boy. It seems the AllSpark has changed him into a mech. Whether he will be able to consciously use the energy is a matter of debate. Currently it seems he cannot connect with his memories: he has no clue who he is, where he is, or who we are. This may be due to having to get used to his new form, or it could be a symptom of shock." He paused.

"In time it would be likely that his memories will return, whatever the reason for his temporary amnesia, but that may take some time. If you wish, Lord Starscream, I can intervene and help him remember now."

"No, don't do that," Starscream said.

"I have a better idea."


	2. Chapter 2

Reincarnation.

Chapter Two.

A/N: A bit sad, this chapter, it didn't turn out as I originally planned it to.

Autobot Base, two weeks after Sam's disappearance. 

"We've got Sam's image circulated to the civilian Police, the military Police, Interpol, and the police of every co-operative country on the globe, so if they spot him, we'll know where to get him," said Optimus to the downhearted Bumblebee.

"What about the non-co-operative countries?" Bumblebee asked.

"Epps and Simmons have assured me they have eyes and ears there too, and they are keeping them well open for anybody fitting Sam's description," Optimus said. "We've had an offer from the Decepticons to search their Base, which I think means there's no point because he won't be there, that's if they have him. They insist he managed to escape through a hole in the bottom of Starscream's hangar and know as much about his whereabouts as we, but they are Decepticons," Optimus said. "As such, just in case, we will take them up on their offer."

"Well, I've been out looking for him, but I wouldn't know where to start," Bumblebee said. "It's gotten a bit more complicated too. Mikaela says she's pregnant, and it can only be Sam's. Miles has offered to help out, but that is likely to only provide a temporary solution."

"Well, you are excused regular duties until further notice to go looking for Sam. If Mikaela needs any support, we will lend any aid we can. We've also arranged to have his case televised, minus the alien abduction," Optimus said. "Perhaps that will help to find him."

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"Now, we have a missing persons appeal for all you CNN watchers out there. Two weeks ago an eighteen year old human boy, Samuel James Witwicky, went out to the Tranquility Promontory, commonly known to the nearby residents as The Lookout, in his car. The boy has not been seen since. His car was recovered, although it had been wrecked. Here is his face, please look at it and remember. This boy's parents are worried about him, and a mystery donor has put up a reward of a million $US for information leading to his recovery. Please all viewers, call the number you will see at the bottom of the screen if you think you may know anything about Sam's whereabouts. This is CNN News."

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Two years after Sam's disappearance.

Bumblebee commed to enter Optimus' office, and went in. Optimus motioned the smaller' bot towards the energon dispenser, but Bumblebee shook his head. The Autobot Leader had called him in here and he wanted to know why without distractions.

"Bumblebee, we have had many Autobots and humans searching for Sam now," Optimus said. "We have not found Sam, either alive or dead. We will never stop looking for him, but as the Decepticons have received more reinforcements and as they are attacking more human establishments to gain fuel, we must devote more time to defending them. Bumblebee, we will not abandon the search for Sam, nor are we assuming that he is dead, but if he is still near The Lookout after two years, I would be surprised.

"But – people have been found years after their disappearance, both on Earth and on Cybertron," Bumblebee said. "It's only been two years, the Decepticons may be hiding him somewhere else!"

"Most people who disappear for that long either want to, are too young to know any better, so don't realise they're missing people till their older, if ever, or else they are assumed dead." Optimus raised a hand as Bumblebee began to speak.

"You can still search for him while on patrol or during your spare time, but we must address the Decepticon problem we currently have. Who knows, Bumblebee, dealing with one may help deal with the other, we can ask any Decepticons we capture about him."

Bumblebee drooped, he knew Optimus was right. He looked up as he felt the larger 'bot lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Bumblebee, we are still asking the Military and the civilian police forces to look for him and follow any leads. We must have faith in them to do their job."

Bumblebee thought, but didn't say, that as the Decepticons had caused Sam's disappearance, the Police would be unlikely to find him, but he nodded and said "Yes, Optimus."

Leaving the room, he called Ironhide to find out if he was in his armoury.

If he had to fight Decepticons, he decided he needed to get some practice in.

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Ten years after Sam's disappearance.

Bumblebee punched the wall angrily.

"They can't give up! How can they say he's dead without a body?" Bumblebee asked.

"I wish I could answer your question more positively, Bumblebee, but I believe that they are assuming that with no contact or positive sighting for ten years that they will now be looking for a body."

"Do you think he's dead?" Bumblebee asked in a small voice, his anger at the Police spent.

"I believe it is possible," Optimus admitted.

"I'll start looking for a body as well," Bumblebee said, his voice strained with hurt. "At least maybe we can know for certain. I know his parents believe him dead, perhaps if that's the case we can verify it for them, give them something to bury, and give them some form of closure. I won't give up hope of finding him alive, but I should assume that he could be dead." Without a further word, Bumblebee turned and left the room.

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Thirty years after Sam's disappearance.

They stood, humans and robots alike, around the small memorial stone with Sam's name on it in the Autobot Base.

Ron and Judy had suspected for some time that Sam was dead, and they wanted some form of closure, even if his body had not been found.

"If he were still alive, he would have found some way to contact us by now," Judy said. "With this stone, even without any body, we have somewhere to go. I know we're not alone in this, when people are washed overboard their relatives have no body. If his body is found, we can bury it, but if not, we can have this."

Mikaela, who was there with Miles and the two children, one theirs and one Sam's, put her arm around Judy. Miles had lived with Mikaela for a few years before he asked her to marry him, for legal reasons. After all, he had argued, if Sam turned up they could always divorce. She had accepted for the legal reasons, but had ended up falling for him. Usually, marrying a boyfriend's best friend would be considered a cardinal sin, but this situation was somewhat different. So Ron and Judy considered her one of the family, after all, the oldest of her children was biological grandson.

Both Judy and Ron looked drawn and older than their actual years, although under Ratchet's care they were healthier than most sixty-odd year olds. Both of them were white-haired, although Ron only had a little around the back of his head by now, and both had lost weight, almost to the point of gauntness, despite Ratchet's attempt to persuade them to drink his build-up drinks. They said that it was the grandson who kept them going, he was also named Samuel, that otherwise they would have nothing left to live for.

"Bumblebee's concentric search around the Decepticon Base with ground-penetrating radar turned up seven bodies of varying ages and times of death, and have solved a few disappearances, but none of them were Sam," Optimus told them. "He went ten miles out before he decided to stop."

"I can go out further if you want," Bumblebee offered, and Ron nodded gratefully.

"If you could, we'd be grateful, but to tell the truth, he could be anywhere," Ron said.

"I'll keep looking. If nothing else, the Police will be grateful," Bumblebee said.

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Forty-nine years after Sam's disappearance.

The memorial stone for Sam now stood in a rose garden that Judy had created in the Autobot Base, and was now kept company by a gravestone. Ron had died the year before, and Judy had asked that he be buried there. Knowing the Witwicky's religious views, and some of the fuss that might result if they did otherwise, they asked an Army chaplain to consecrate the ground, and Ron had been buried there with a wooden cross to mark the spot. The permanent stone, which would be placed once the earth has settled, was in the form of an open book, with the left-hand page containing the details of Ron's life and death, the right-hand page left blank, ready for when Judy died and would be buried beside him as she had requested.

Nobody had expected it to happen so fast, but it seemed the loss of both Sam, and then Ron, had sapped her of the will to live, and despite all Ratchet's attempts, she had gone into a rapid decline. When Ratchet found her cold and still in the bed he had put her in when he'd brought her in, he could not find any obvious reason for her death, and the Army doctor brought in to confirm it couldn't either. When an autopsy also found no obvious reason for her death, the doctor signed her death off as 'sudden adult death syndrome.' "It's as if her heart just stopped beating," the Army medic had said.

"Maybe, as you humans say, she died of a broken heart," Ratchet said. The Army medic had looked surprised.

"I'm surprised you come to that conclusion, I mean, you're robots, you don't have hearts to break, do you?"

Ratchet ignored the implied slur, knowing the medic hadn't meant it as such. "On Cybertron, we bond, and we have Sparks that beat together when bonded. If one of a bonded pair dies, the other will often follow, sometimes immediately, sometimes weeks, months, or years later. We say it's because with the death of their bonded, 'their Spark has been torn in two.' Much like a broken heart in humans, there is no obvious external damage, yet the partner declines and dies."

Now they were gathered there six months after Ron's death to put Judy in the ground next to him. Mikaela, Miles, Samuel, Robert (Mikaela's and Miles' son) and Rebecca (their daughter) stood with the Autobots, and with the Lennox and Epps families. The Army chaplain seemed unfazed by the four Autobots who had known Sam and his family attending the service, and when Judy had been interred, everyone went into the Base for a drink.

With Sam missing, presumed dead, and his parents dead and buried, Bumblebee ceased his search. He himself now had accepted that Sam was likely to be dead, and his body destroyed and unlikely to be found.

Turning from the graves and the memorial stone, he headed back into Base, checking his duties.

He was on patrol that day, he found, assuming the Decepticons didn't carry out any raids, which of course could not be assumed would not happen. They had been quieter of late, but past experience told that usually meant they were planning something.

He went to get a few hours of recharge, trying to ignore, as he had for the last fifty years, the Sam-shaped hole in his life.


	3. Chapter 3

Reincarnation.

Chapter Three.

A/N: Sorry for the shortness of the chapter, but where I stopped was a good place to do so.

Sam opened his eyes with a cry. He looked around, expecting to see Barricade or Starscream around and stopped, confused, for the room he was in now was smaller than Starscream's hangar, and he was the only occupant. Looking down to one side he recognised the cube of pink sparkly fluid next to him as energon. He tried to sit up, and managed with difficulty, but in doing so he could not escape the fact that somehow, he was now a Cybertronian.

He looked at his black and grey arm and hand, then at his similarly-patterned legs. Putting his hands to his head he felt a helm where his hair had been. He held his hands out in front of him to see silver fingers and a mottled grey plate over the back of his hand. Feeling up his body he could feel no wings nor find any thrusters, which he assumed meant he was a ground-based mech, not a Seeker.

He stood, not as wobbly as he thought he would be, and found the room had adequate clearance for his head. Carefully stepping over the cube of energon, Sam explored the bare walls of the room, looking for anything he could appeal to. He found a camera, but no mike, and as he didn't know where he was, decided an appeal, especially without sound, would do no good, even if Starscream was prepared to listen, for he assumed he was in Decepticon captivity.

Sam recalled everything about what had happened to him, up until he lost consciousness. He was confused, but glad, that he was alive, for hadn't Starscream ordered Barricade to kill him? Whatever had happened next must have caused his change. Sam tried, in vain, to rack his processors to remember the time that must have passed between becoming a mech in Starscream's hangar, and that was when he realized that he had an internal clock. It took him a couple of tries to access it and when he did, he thought it must be wrong, and then checked again.

To his shock, he realized that if the clock were correct, he had been out of it for more than fifty years. He wondered what had become of his parents and Mikaela and Miles. His parents were likely dead, or very old, Miles and Mikaela elderly. As he shook his head and shouted "No!" he noticed that his mech voice sounded both strange and yet somehow familiar. He shook his head again, something was wrong with the clock, that much time could not have passed.

He sat down again, and picked up the energon. He lifted it to his lips and took a cautious sip. Like the sound of his voice, the taste of the energon was somehow totally alien yet also familiar. He shuttered his optics and tilted his head back against the wall, trying to work out where the missing time had gone, and, as his internal clock had to be wrong, how long he had been a mech.

He found that if he concentrated hard enough, he could remember a little, but only brief, nonspecific flashes, like pictorial lightning. Fighting, there was a fair amount of fighting, and he could see brief flashes, seeing Autobots and Decepticons on the battlefield, but there was nothing there that gave him any of the answers he sought.

He unshuttered his optics as he heard a click, tensing, because he somehow recognized the sound as that of an electronic lock releasing. He stumbled back into a half-crouch, not wanting to be caught defenceless, not knowing who or what would be coming through that door. He thought back to the images of fighting. Weapons, he must have some sort of weapons to be able to fight, and at the thought he could feel armour shift slightly but that was it. His weapons had to be under there, but for some reason or another they were not deploying.

He came to the conclusion that the Decepticons must have disabled his weapons, they wouldn't be foolish enough to leave him armed, as a large blue mech he didn't know looked in. Sam pulled back and watched him enter. He was armed, a small arm-blaster pointed cautiously, but not aggressively, at him. All the same, Sam swept the room with his optics for a place to duck if the mech changed his mind and started shooting. Noticing the action, the mech lowered the weapon a fraction and raised his arm, bent at the elbow, and put out an upraised hand, palm-outward, towards Sam.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just checking that you're awake and drinking your energon, the answers to both checks, I see, are yes."

Sam looked up in surprise, for a Decepticon, this mech was fairly agreeable, and he decided that perhaps this mech might help answer his questions.

"Excuse me, this might sound a strange question, but what date is it, and are we still on Earth?" he asked.

"Yes, we're still on Earth and the date is 23rd July, 2064. Don't worry, apparently the confusion is normal, especially considering how badly you were injured, at least that's what Ratchet told us, he told us not to be surprised at anything you ask." As the words sank into Sam's mind, and connections began to be made, he stared at the mech who, oblivious, continued talking.

"Anyway, Ratchet will give you a final check-over tonight so we can return you to Starscream in good health, in exchange for a two-week ceasefire, perhaps. Anyway, I'll be back later, you seem to have enough energon so I'd best get on with my other duties." As he turned to leave, Sam caught sight of something on the mech's shoulder that made his optics open even wider.

Sam got up to try and stop the mech, crying "Hey, wait!," but the mech had gone and the door in front of Sam remained closed, and even when he pounded on it, nobody came.

He sat down, recalling the mech had said he would be back at sometime, which gave Sam plenty of time to attempt to put the facts together in a way that made sense.

First of all, it appeared that his internal chronometer was not malfunctioning, he had been out of it for fifty-three years, yet he could only recall the barest fragments from those lost years. He recalled how friendly the mech had been, how he seemed concerned for his welfare. How he had mentioned Ratchet, as if he knew him personally, how the implication was that Ratchet had examined and treated Sam.

As Sam trailed his own fingers first down his chest then up each arm, he recalled how, as the mech turned, he had seen a red Autobot logo on his arm. The only way that made any sense would be if the Autobots, rather than the Decepticons, were the ones holding him prisoner. But why would they do that?

As his fingers touched his left shoulder, the answer to that question became quite clear as his fingers traced, and recognized by feel, the etched, sharp-angled symbol they found there.

Sam twisted his head in a vain attempt to see it, and wondered how many of those fifty-three lost years he had spent as a Decepticon.


	4. Chapter 4

Reincarnation.

Chapter Four.

'_How and when did I become a Decepticon?'_ Sam wondered, having finally craned his neck round enough to visually confirm what his sense of touch had told him. He sat back, picking up the energon, and racked his processors again.

He could remember going to the Lookout, the Decepticons sneaking up behind them, and could remember Bumblebee trying – and failing – to defend him from the two. He hoped, prayed, that Bumblebee had survived the attack, but the crumpled mess the two attacking Decepticons had left made him doubtful.

He recalled Barricade taking him to Starscream, the latter instructing Barricade to kill him. He recalled very clearly the squeeze that broke his ribs and turned his body to fire, the collision with the wall so hard that he lost all feeling, and the foot upon him that stopped him being aware of anything. Then - and he strained to remember the intervening time with no success – he had woken up in this cell, with over fifty years of time to account for.

Wait! He suddenly found a wisp of memory, of seeing Starscream converse with another mech. He was aware that by this time, he was a mech himself. He could hear their voices, but not what they were saying. The unknown mech had attached a cable to dataports in the back of his neck, holding his head to still his struggles, then had spoken to Starscream again. Then Starscream had replied, and the other had reached around to the back of Sam's neck – and then there was nothing more.

Just what, Sam wondered, had happened after that? Had Starscream or Barricade or another mech done something to him, and just what? How could he have misplaced the memories of fifty-plus years, and for how much of that time had he been a Decepticon? Had he been cryo-frozen for most of the time? Had he been in the Cybertronian equivalent of a coma? Where were the memories of all that time?

He must have spent quite a bit of time pondering this, for it seemed not too much later that he heard the tell-tale click of his cell door opening. He put down his now-empty cube of energon and looked up.

He must have changed his alt to keep up with the times, Sam assumed, but his face, although now silver and white was otherwise unchanged. Sam got to his feet. "Ratchet! Am I glad to see you!" he cried.

The Autobot medic shuttered and unshuttered his optics rapidly in surprise. "Well, Ram-Raid, that makes a nice change to the epithets and expletives you usually have to say about us," he said.

'_Ram-Raid?'_ Sam thought, and then he remembered. Yeah, he was a mech, a Decepticon mech at that. He must have had a name, and he supposed that that was it. Unaware of Sam's thoughts, Ratchet continued speaking.

"Anyway, come with us to the control room." Ratchet stood aside, allowing Sam to walk uncertainly out of the door. The Autobot medic fell into step behind him, pushing him forwards in the direction Ratchet wanted him to go. We need to contact Starscream and find out how we'll get you back to him."

"Hey, wait a minute, I don't want to go to Starscream," Sam said, the idea filling him with horror.

"Well, I suggest you tell him that yourself," Ratchet said, the scepticism plain in his tone of voice. He tapped Sam's shoulder to indicate he was to turn in through the door, and as he did, Sam saw that Optimus Prime was there, also subtly different but recognisable, standing in front of a large screen mounted on the wall of the room. Currently filling the screen was the image of Starscream, who looked disgruntled as usual, although that could be just the way the Seeker's faceplates looked with the 'kibble' of Earth jets. Sam and Ratchet were currently out of range of the camera that was obviously conveying Optimus' image back to the Decepticon Leader, so Starscream could not currently see him.

Ratchet gently tried to steer him forward, but Sam this time resisted. The memory of Starscream ordering Barricade to kill him rushed up to fill his processors again and he let out an involuntary cry. Starscream must have heard it, for Sam heard him ask "What was that sound?"

Optimus turned to look at Ratchet, and gave him a nod.

"Ratchet has brought Ram-Raid to show you that, as promised, he is repaired and ready to be returned to you as you requested," Optimus said. Ratchet gave Sam another shove towards the screen, a little firmer than before, and Sam moved forwards now, until he was standing behind and to one side of the Autobot leader.

"Splendid, if you bring him outside your Base, I will come to pick him up," said Starscream.

"Don't I have any say in this?" Sam asked, and Optimus, Ratchet and Starscream all looked at him in surprise.

"It seems Ram-Raid may have a different opinion. As it is his freedom to do so, I suggest we let him speak," Optimus said, and Sam felt a surge of hope. Perhaps he could arrange to stay with the 'bots, find out what had happened, and explain his side of things!

"I don't want to go back to Starscream," Sam said. "I claim asylum here, or the Cybertronian equivalent at least, because I don't want to be a Decepticon." He pointed a finger at the startled image of Starscream on the screen. "You wanted me killed!" He turned to look at Optimus and Ratchet again. "He told Barricade to kill me! Why would I want to go back to someone who tried to kill me? His mechs hurt, maybe killed 'Bee at the Lookout while-"

He was cut off as Starscream said "Ram-Raid, incoming transmission for you."

Sam's coms must have been open, for he received a transmission which didn't contain any message, but as he registered it, he heard a click…and then nothing more.

The Autobots heard Ram-Raid stop speaking, and his optics dimmed as he received the transmission. Ram-Raid seemed to sag, looking as if he were about to fall, then straightened up again. He looked around in confusion, and then flew for Ratchet, shouting "What have you done to me, Autobot scum! Why can't I remember how I got here?" As one of his hands went for Ratchet's saw arm, which the medic had deployed, the other darted to Ratchet's face, scratching at the face and trying to claw at the optics.

As Ram-Raid attempted to twist Ratchet's arm and claw out his optics, Optimus Prime was not idle. Sending a command to terminate the transmission to Starscream, he turned and caught Ram-Raid around the chest. With a tug and a twist, he managed to pull the mech off Ratchet, throwing him to the ground.

Ram-Raid managed to hit the ground in such a way he could roll and get back to his feet, ready to face the Prime, who had now deployed his swords. Ram-Raid dodged and feinted, ducking under one sword and narrowly avoiding the other as he lifted one leg and used the other to push off. The raised foot was propelled into Optimus' right hip, making the Prime stagger, but not fall, and then Ram-Raid attacked the hip again, this time using his hands. Again, Optimus staggered but his excellent gyros prevented an actual fall. Ratchet had, by now, got to his feet but could not use his saw-arm for fear of harming Optimus. He reached for Ram-Raid, even as Optimus put a sword away in order to grab at one of the Decepticon's arms.

As Optimus managed to displace one of Ram-Raid's hands, holding it out and away, Ratchet saw his chance and brought his saw-arm to bear. As it sliced through the armour and joint of the shoulder, Ram-Raid cried out, taking his hand from trying to damage Optimus' hip and trying to attack Ratchet. As Ratchet's saw cut through the arm fully, Ram-Raid lunged for Ratchet's optics with the other. At which point Optimus Prime seized the Decepticon by the waist and threw him to the ground, so he landed on his back.

With just one arm, Ram-Raid found getting back up difficult, and before he could roll over from his back to his front, Optimus was on him, his swords out, the tip of one resting on his throat, the tip of the other pressed to the armour over his Spark.

A clatter of feet announced that some of the others had got there, Ironhide moving to point his cannon at Ram-Raid's chest. Cliffjumper moved around as Ratchet crouched by Ram-Raid's head. The Decepticon glared up at Optimus.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked. "You're going to kill me, I know that, so what's keeping you?"

"We took you in and repaired you earlier today when you were injured in battle. We were going to give you back to Starscream, but you attacked us. If we had intended to kill you, we could have done it then. If you wish us to kill you, by attacking us you have done the right thing." Optimus slightly increased the sword's pressure on Ram-Raid's chest. The flash of fear in his optics told Optimus that he did not want to die.

"I can do it, and make it merciful and quick," Ironhide growled, in a voice that sounded anything but comforting.

"Easy, Ironhide," Optimus said. "I don't think that it's necessary." Ratchet stepped forwards and pushed Ironhide's cannon away from Ram-Raid's chest, then turned to Optimus.

"He said something that intrigued me just before he turned on us. In fact, he turned immediately after that transmission from Starscream. To me, that's suspicious. I'd like to investigate what happened, and I can do that while I repair him. I don't want to send him back until and unless I find out why he previously said he wouldn't want to go back to Starscream."

"Liar!" snarled Ram-Raid. "I recall fighting on the battlefield, then I recall being here, with no recollection of how I got here!"

"Well, maybe once you're repaired, maybe we can work out what's happening, but as you seem to be a recalcitrant patient, I apologise for what I must do next," Ratchet said. "Optimus, stay where you are, he is restricted by your swords. Ironhide, please restrain his hands."

As the two bigger Autobots held Ram-Raid down, Ratchet immobilised his heads and connected to his processors. As Ram-Raid cried and struggled, Ratchet closed him down into deep recharge. Then he scooped the Decepticon up into his arms, picked up his severed arm, and cradled him gently as he carried him to a work table.

Sending a com that he was not to be disturbed for anything but a genuine emergency, Ratchet began repairing the Decepticon. Once his arm was reattached and any other injuries repaired, Ratchet began checking the memory chips and processors, hoping to find answers to the questions posed by both himself, and by Ram-Raid.


	5. Chapter 5

Reincarnation.

Chapter Five.

After making sure that Ram-Raid was online but not responsive or able to feel, he carefully moved the segments of Ram-Raid's helm to one side. Disconnecting the wires controlling his audios and allowing them to fan out over the work table, he peered into the mech's head to find out if anything would be obvious just by looking. Ratchet's mentor had taught him that, that some problems could be diagnosed by observation only.

Ratchet spotted the unusual arrangement inside the helm immediately. Most mechs or femmes had their memory chips arranged all around the inside of their helms, pointing towards the centre, almost like a hedgehog in reverse, with wires connecting to the processor from each one. Just the one primary memory chip was usually present, directly plugged in to a space for it in the processor, usually aspects of personality or how the mech or femme reacted to certain stimuli. Here would be coded basic training, temperament, and what humans called instinct.

What Ratchet was seeing amounted to a processor doubled, two sets of processors, each with one primary memory chip installed, a bristling array of memory chips all around each set. Everywhere, that is, except in the area where the two would otherwise meet, where a wide strip of memory sockets had been flattened and deformed so as to make them unusable. In the clear space between the two processors was what Ratchet recognised as some sort of switching mechanism, its control circuit wired into the area of Ram-Raid's audio and communications terminals. A signal – perhaps like the one sent by Starscream earlier – would trip the switch one way or the other, for there was no off setting. The switch would complete the circuit to one set of processors – and memory chips – or the other.

Ratchet had his suspicions about this, even though the inside of Ram-Raid's head was like nothing he'd seen before, and he removed the primary chip from each processor, and two random chips from each side of the array inside the helm. Keeping the three chips from each side in each hand, he took the chips over to a reader he'd cobbled together from some human mechanisms, and began looking through the memories on Ram-Raid's chips, beginning with the ones from the side that the switch had been set to turn on.

The trawl through Ram-Raid's memories took Ratchet into some territory that was familiar, but also much that was not. Almost any mech or femme could download memories and experiences from anyone who was dead, or even still alive, and the memories on Ram-Raid's seemed to be a mixture.

Ratchet was sure that Ram-Raid's life was fabricated, for between the stuff he didn't know was stuff he had seen a dozen times, used en masse to create false personalities for spies, sleeper Decepticons, and Autobots who had been reprogrammed to believe they were Decepticon spies in the Autobot forces. Any Autobots returned via a prisoner exchange were checked to make sure their mind had not been tampered with.

Ram-Raid's early life was patchy, attributed to amnesia after being damaged in a fierce battle, but there was also no memory of the battle. This was not unheard of, and in fact was relatively common, but it was an all-too convenient excuse that the Decepticons had overused to such an extent that the amnesia tale was immediately suspect. Ratchet immediately removed and checked all the used memory chips from Ram-Raid, who did not have an awful lot of full memory chips for an adult who had to have been put in his adult body on Cybertron, and found more inconsistencies and more suspicious cloned memories.

Even more suspicious was the lack of recollection of landing – which he saw Starscream explaining in the memories was due to damage sustained on landing. Ratchet blinked, recalling all known landings, and recalling that none of the protoforms had landed with enough impact to damage the memories of the Cybertronian inside. Yes, a sharp jolt could make a Cybertronian lose their memories, but not only was there no recorded impact, but a jolt severe enough to affect a Cybertronian's memory tended to wipe the entire memory.

Rarely, one whole block of memory or another would be entirely wiped in such an incident, a loss of the earlier or recent segment of their life, not a few hazy memories and then the clarity this seemed to show. Add to this that the chances of the same mech going through _two_ such amnesia-inducing incidents was very rare, Ratchet suspected that this personality was a thin fabrication. Perhaps, Ratchet thought, the mech's true identity, Autobot, Decepticon, or neutral, could be revealed.

When he examined the memory chip from the processor, he could not believe what it showed. He stopped the replay, checked the memory chip for corrupted files, ran a diagnostic on it, ran a diagnostic on the reader, then ran a diagnostic on himself. When he viewed the first few memories again, they had not changed. How they had cloned the memories he was viewing, he had no idea.

As he watched and saw no breaks, no continuity errors and no contradictions that might indicate a change of memories, he began to wonder if what he was seeing might actually be the truth. He could not find anything he had seen before, in fact everything he was seeing was not only new, but from a totally different perspective.

When he finally got to near the end of the odd memories, connected them with some of Ram-Raid's clear memories, some of the first, in fact, it became horribly clear to Ratchet what had apparently happened, but how, he had no idea.

Deciding to put aside as much processor power to the conundrum as he could, Ratchet decided that once he'd put the mech's memory-chips back, he'd go into deep shutdown to work out how what he had seen could be the case.

He approached the mech, fitting Ram-Raid's own memories in their place, but when he went to put the chips containing the unusual memories back in their half of the helm, he found that the processor was somehow active. He noticed that memory chips he had earlier noticed were empty, and had thus ignored, were having memories written onto them. Not wanting to damage the mech further, Ratchet jacked into the mech he knew as Ram-Raid...and saw the unusual memories he had already seen being written onto the chips.

Ratchet knew that what was known as 'Spark-memory' could affect a mech or femme. Spark memory meant the sight of someone who had severely hurt – or had ordered another to hurt them on their orders, if they had seen them - could be strong, even if the actual memories of the event had been deleted, making them scared of the one who had hurt them, and the one who had ordered it. Some events could be so traumatic that it was 'remembered' by the Spark. He supposed a human might have called the sense of forboding by a mech with Spark-memories but no actual memories 'like déjà vu' or a 'bad feeling', or like 'looking at someone and just knowing they were bad.'

He had never heard of Spark-memory being transferred to the memory chips. Spark-memories only existed if a strong emotion was associated with the memory, but even such memories never re-wrote themselves if the originals were removed. Ratchet realised he was iseeing something that had either been omitted from the medical records he had taken from Cybertron before he left (which was all he could find), or he was witnessing one of those rare one-offs: something that had never happened before, or had at least not happened and been recorded. Ratchet knew how stuffy some of the medics had become, not recording what they had seen if it didn't fit their models of how things worked.

Ratchet, however, had become one of those students who had wanted to know why things did what they did, for although he had been a mature student, Ratchet was also a diplomat, sent by the Senate to learn medicine while learning about dissident medic trainees, or, to be more precise, who they were.

However, when Ratchet had heard about some of the students' grievances, especially those whose Creators had almost literally mortgaged their Spark to send them to the Cybertronian Academy, he began to sympathise with their plight. Here, his earlier knowledge in diplomacy served him well, as some of the slower students in his class got positions on Ratchet's recommendation where they were given better processors if their slowness yet accuracy, was noticed. It would probably result in upgraded processors as well as their job, because it was cheaper than employing, on a six-month contract, someone else who could be as bad, if not worse, than whom they intended to replace.

Inserting the memory-chips quickly, Ratchet saw the re-writing cease, a moment where the processors hummed for a moment, and then powered back down.

Ratchet sighed. With the information he had, he was able to formulate a working theory that fit with both the observed facts earlier, and with the additional information he had gleamed from the memory chips. 'How' was the biggest obstacle to his theory, a gaping hole that could not be glossed over: how could a human morph into a mech?

Frustrated, he ran every scan he had on the supine mech: even ones that seemed pointless, like checking the gender (he was certain that Ram-Raid was a mech), or checking for the presence of energy fluctuations of the Spark that could signify the presence of a sparkling in a femme, even though the gender-check had returned a mech verdict.

He finished his scans no wiser than when he had started when he remembered that there was one scan that all Cybertronians, regardless of their affiliation or profession, were able to carry out. It was the results of said scan that had finally guided them towards this small blue and green and brown planet after so many millennia. A scan that had lost its purpose when Sam (who nobody had seen for almost a vorn) had thrust the AllSpark, the source of the energy the scan would pick up, into Megatron's chest, destroying the megalomaniac former Lord High Protector, but destroying their life-providing AllSpark in the process. Ratchet had seen the shrivelled fragment Sam's actions had left of the AllSpark, knew that there was enough power in it to communicate with the two Sensitives, Bumblebee and Optimus, but no more. He also was aware that neither had thought to consult it about Sam, figuring that as he was one of several billion humans on the planet, it would not have any idea.

Ratchet, however, had consulted with two Seekers who had come over to their side. Jetfire was the Seeker who had once been a Decepticon but had changed sides during the Fallen debacle, and Skyfire was a large Seeker who had emerged from the polar ice not long after The Fallen's death. He had joined the Decepticons at Starscream's urging, but then expressed doubts to Starscream and been shot by him. The Autobots had found him and cared for him, and he had chosen to join their side after some thought.

Skyfire was a scientist, and had noted that the energy expended by the destruction of Megatron was not as much as might have been expended, considering that even under heavy pressure, the AllSpark had never run out of energy. The power, Skyfire speculated, should have destroyed part, if not all, of the Earth in such a release. Instead, the human had not even singed his hands. Skyfire had speculated that the power may have gone elsewhere. They had not yet discovered how, or where. Until proof could be found, to prove or disprove it, Skyfire's theory would remain just a theory.

Trembling with fear, both of confirming his idea, and of disproving it, Ratchet ran a scan to detect and identify AllSpark energy. When scanning from space, the scan could detect the origin to within a few hundred miles. Unless they were within a mile of the Cube, they could not pinpoint the exact location – hence the need for the glasses of Sam's grandfather, they made the search faster. However, his results gave him no doubts. AllSpark energy was present close by, in fact the scan confirmed the reading of the energy was coming from Ram-Raid, the mech on his table.

The facts fell into place for Ratchet at that moment. The mech in front of him _could_ contain the human memories he had seen if Starscream's orders – seen in the memory chips with the human memories – had been carried out, if Sam had been killed, and if the AllSpark power within him had, in response, created a mech body for him to inhabit, the memories in the Spark writing themselves to memory and being contained in their entirety in the Spark.

The early memories of Ram-Raid, the mech connecting himself to Sam's new form, and then only believing in the Decepticon cause, of the mix of known and not-known to Ratchet memories, drew Ratchet to one conclusion.

He reached down and flipped the switch so it was 'on' to the Sam-memories. He wired it into place to prevent any transmission of Starscream's switching the personalities. Then he made sure he closed up Ram-Raid's –or now, he hoped, Sam's – help, and before bringing him back to awareness, sent out a com.

'**Bumblebee, please make your way to the medbay immediately. Ratchet out.'**


	6. Chapter 6

Reincarnation.

Chapter Six.

A few minutes later, Bumblebee walked into the med bay, round blue optics seeking Ratchet out and then looking at him curiously as the yellow scout came over to stand by him.

"What did you want me for, Ratchet?" He gave Ram-Raid's body a sidelong glance. "Starscream's demanding the return of that one, is accusing us of bot-napping him and reprogramming him."

"He's the one who's been doing the reprogramming, Bumblebee," Ratchet said. "I've checked all his memories, and except for two mysterious - and suspicious - absences of memory, they're events I've never seen before, mixed in with memories I've seen in plenty of other 'bots who have been reprogrammed."

"Do we know him by another name, Ratchet? Who is he?" Bumblebee asked, the excitement at possibly meeting an old colleague making him jig a bit, a flash of the young and happy mech Bumblebee had been before Sam had seemingly disappeared showing through his usually-serious demeanour. Ratchet had thought of several ways Bumblebee might react to Sam's disappearance. The young mech turning into a younger version of Prowl, at least in his demeanour, he had not seen coming.

"Bumblebee, do you remember how in Mission City, although Megatron was destroyed, Sam was fine? He was holding the other end of the Cube, but he didn't even get singed fingers."

"Yes, of course," Bumblebee said, startled by the abrupt change of subject.

"Didn't you think it was odd? Megatron was destroyed, but Sam, in his weak and fragile human body, wasn't touched. I think that that was not a mistake, Bee," Ratchet said. "The explosion wasn't big enough to use all of the AllSpark's energy. Ironhide calculated that the blast should actually have scorched the Earth, if not the solar system, and if the energy had been dissipated, the Earth would be overrun with newly-alive toasters, laptops, and so forth."

"Yes, I remember, Ratchet," Bumblebee said. "Ironhide theorised that the AllSpark was just a conduit for what seemed to be an unlimited energy, possibly coming through from another dimension. He also theorised that the explosion had closed the tunnel the energy used to get to the AllSpark, so the energy is no longer available to us."

"But, Bumblebee, have you ever thought to wonder that perhaps Ironhide was wrong?" Ratchet asked.

"Has evidence to disprove his theory emerged?" Bumblebee asked. "Even Optimus agreed that Ironhide's theory fit the facts and made sense."

"Bumblebee, when I examined Ram-Raid's head, he had two processors in there – in effect, two personalities, two different sets of memories. Between them was a switch that could switch to one processor and chips or the other. I've already told you that I've seen quite a few of Ram-Raid's 'memories' before, so I think that that personality is fabricated, but when I looked at the memories from the other, what I found was quite unexpected."

"What do you mean?" Bumblebee said, surprised, the sudden change in the direction of the conversation baffling him. He was, as Sam might have said, talking in riddles. His optics dimmed as he recalled that Sam was no longer there to make the observation.

"I scanned Ram-Raid, and registered the presence of low-level AllSpark energy," Ratchet said, and as Bumblebee made a surprised sound, he, too, switched on the scan that would specifically identify AllSpark energy, and warbled in surprise again before saying "My scan confirms that."

"Finding that out answered my questions about how Ram-Raid's other processor could contain the memories of Sam, because that's what the memories show, Bumblebee, the life of a human boy, called Sam, growing up, whose parents are called Ron and Judy Witwicky. Bumblebee, I think that the AllSpark conduit, instead of being destroyed, moved to Sam, and when he was damaged, it gave him a mech body."

"So – " Bumblebee began, but Ratchet cut him off.

"Starscream ordered him to be killed, but the AllSpark repaired him by giving him a mech body. Perhaps because Starscream thought he could not be killed, he decided to reprogram him to serve him."

"But..why did they leave Sam's memories in? Why didn't they just remove the chips?" Bumblebee asked.

"Because the Spark will re-write Sam's memories onto memory chips from the Spark, and I suspect this process, if no empty chips were left, would overwrite anything put in there by Starscream," Ratchet said. "They had to keep Sam's memory-chips in his head in order to stop memories from the Spark overwriting the Ram-Raid fabrication. So they had to keep both, so built in a switch to shut off the Sam-memories and activate the Ram-Raid ones. I suspect the switch was needed in case the Spark needed to have regular contact – say once a month – to avoid writing over the Ram-Raid memories."

Bumblebee moved over and looked down at the supine mech. "Can – can you wake him, Ratchet? I want to speak to him again, I've missed him."

"Well yes, Bumblebee, but you must understand he's going to be very disorientated. The memories he has pretty much stopped when he was 'killed' by Barricade, and there's a patch of being a prisoner in here – I can only assume that the switch was accidentally tripped, perhaps due to damage he took. But that's all he's going to remember, he's going to find everything strange and new and very confusing."

"I promise to be careful, Ratchet, I promise I'll try to support him, but won't he be reassured at seeing me, as his last memory he would have of me is seeing me beaten up on the Lookout?"

Ratchet thought a moment, and then said "I believe you are right. Not only will you be a friendly face, but the face of someone he will be worried about having been hurt. Stand back, he may be thrash a bit, I would hate for you to get accidentally hit if he does."

Bumblebee obediently took a step back, his optics never leaving Ram-Raid's face. No, he told himself, Ram-Raid is a fabrication, it's _Sam's_ face. As Ratchet brought the mech back online, the limbs shifted, a moan came from the vocal processor, and as the optics opened, Ratchet bent over into his visual field.

"Hello, Sam, how are you feeling? Sorry about the earlier misunderstanding, but we didn't know then who you really were. If you don't want to be sent back to Starscream, you don't have to."

"No, I don't, he ordered Barricade to kill me, but Ratchet, is it really true that over fifty years have passed? And is it true that somehow," – and here he paused, moving the fingers of his right hand to feel the etched-on faction logo – "that somehow, I ended up as a Decepticon?"

As he struggled to sit up, Ratchet helped him with one hand, neatly avoiding the question by saying "There's somebody here to see you."

Sam's optics followed the direction of the medic's pointing finger, lighting on the yellow scout who nervously stood nearby. He cried "Bumblebee! You're alive!" Any lingering doubts Bumblebee may have had were banished at Sam's – yes, it _was_ Sam! –at his obvious joy at seeing him. He stepped forward humming happily, putting a hand on one of Sam's arms.

Sam for his part reacted in a very human fashion, threw his arms around 'Bee, hugging him and clapping him on the back, although the doorwings made both actions difficult.

Eventually, Sam released 'Bee from his hug and stood back. He turned to Ratchet.

"If it's more than fifty years since I was taken, what's happened to Mikaela, and my folks?" he asked.

"Mikaela was found to be pregnant with your child not long after your disappearance. Miles married her, to give her support during your absence, although he waited a few years first. They always said they could divorce if need be," Ratchet said. "As it was, they are still together and have two offspring of their own as well as your son, whom they also called Samuel. If you want, I can contact Miles and Mikaela, and Samuel, who has a family of his own. Would you like that?"

"Yes, but you didn't say anything about my Mom and Dad," Sam said. "You can't have forgotten, I remember 'Bee telling me once you – well, all Cybertronians really - could recall everything you've ever seen or heard, so not mentioning them is deliberate." He paused. "They're dead, aren't they?" he said sadly.

"Yes am, I am sorry, they died a few years ago. They are interred here, by the memorial stone they set up for you." Ratchet came over to stand in front of Sam. "They hoped that you still lived, but had to accept that you may have been killed, your body not found. After all, you were taken by Decepticons, who are not known for liking humans, and as you are the same human to kill Megatron by thrusting the AllSpark into his chest, it stands to reason they may have destroyed you."

"Yeah, I guess. Can I see their graves?" he asked.

"Yes, certainly," Ratchet replied. He led Sam and Bumblebee out to the well-kept rose garden that his parents had been buried in. He crouched to read the stone, felt a flickering in his chest as he looked as his parents' dates of death, within six months or so of each other.

"We have a human gardener who comes in to look after the garden. We always have enough notice of his arrival to keep any Autobots away while he works," Ratchet told him, just as Sam was wondering how the large Autobots could tend the thorny but fragile bushes.

He suddenly stood up straight, his optics flashing as he received a com. He turned to Sam.

"It seems Starscream is as persistent and as impatient as ever. He is demanding that you be handed over immediately, or face the consequences. Don't worry, I'll tell Optimus to tell him that you've told me that you don't want to go with him," Ratchet said.

"Will he accept that?" Sam said.

"He'll have to, after all, you _don't_ want to go back to Starscream, do you? You said so earlier," Ratchet replied.

"No, I don't, but I could tell him myself I don't want to go back," Sam said. "Surely, that'll convince him? He won't be able to turn me again, will he?" Sam's fingers wandered to trail over the Decepticon logo on his shoulder, tracing the lines etched into the metal. Ratchet thought that even when Sam had that removed – as he was likely to – the touching might remain as a nervous habit.

"No, Sam, he won't. He had a separate personality in your head with yours – the personality Ram-Raid, which was a fabrication. He had a switch between the two which could make one or other personality active. I've welded it into the 'on' position to your personality. He'd need someone to unweld it to succeed." As Sam opened his mouth again, Ratchet interrupted him.

"I'll explain why they let your own personality still exist later, but I suggest we go and you tell Starscream personality that you don't want to go back. I warn you, Sam, Starscream may put up quite a fight, he won't like it that you know who you are again. Your Ram-Raid personality was tailored to his specifications, he's just lost his most loyal grounder."

Sam grinned, and the look was almost feral, as one of his hands fisted and smacked into the other one.

"Bring it on," he said.


End file.
